The Tomcar is an innovative all-terrain vehicle and we believe it’s going to cause a storm when we launch the vehicle to the Australian public later this year. The Tomcar’s simple and robust design is a product of a long pedigree as a rapid all-terrain vehicle for military forces in combat. Originally researched and built for combat environments, the vehicle successfully serves numerous military and security forces in conflict zones across the globe, the most recent with the British Army contingent of active NATO forces.

The Tomcar’s original battlefield pedigree translates into an elegantly simple and visionary design that makes it easy to drive and allows quick repair capabilities in the field. The Tomcar’s unique abilities can be applied to many tasks outside combat, and as such, the civilian market is increasingly utilising Tomcar vehicles.

We are set to build 5,000 vehicles per year at our new Melbourne plant. We’ll be supplying agricultural, security, tourism and mining industries with vehicles that are not only inspired by our military versions, but are in essence the same vehicle. Tomcars are designed to be safe, rugged and extremely dependable, making them ideal for the harsh Australian environment.

However, here in Australia we have to compete in an established and highly competitive market. Tomcar Australia’s goal was to break through and compete effectively by using flexible technology, while at the same time minimising costs and maximising the value of our services. The large established automotive players already have extensive customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning systems, which they use to interact with dealers and consumers. Conversely, to tap into these large players, dealers must also invest heavily in expensive IT infrastructure.

As a newcomer we wanted to make sure it was easy for Tomcar dealers to work with us, so we sought an IT solution that would integrate with dealers’ own systems in a fuss-free manner. To also streamline operations across our supply chain, we needed reliable and easy-to-use communication and collaboration tools for staff and external stakeholders, particularly as they are spread across Australia and overseas.

In the end, the adoption of Google Apps for Business was an easy decision. We were already familiar with Google and after some intense research into the products available, we decided to move everyone over to Google Apps. We needed a system that was flexible, affordable and could be deployed rapidly. Within a short period of time we have outmanoeuvred big competitors with Google Apps, saving ourselves at least AU$300,000 on elaborate technology architecture solutions.

Gmail, Google Sites, Google Calendar, and Google Drive have enabled our employees to gain anytime, anywhere access to email, documents and all of our business-critical data. Through Google Apps, we have created a totally paperless office, and in the process, developed a system where relevant data needed to source, produce and manufacture the vehicles is all online and accessible from anywhere. Our stakeholders and partners share the most up-to-date data, including engineering drawings and designs which are stored and tracked in Google Drive allowing us to make better decisions, faster. This vastly increases our ability to compete with the bigger players in the market.

Our highly mobile workforce is loving Google Docs for editing and sharing in real-time, resulting in quicker project completion and deal closures, even when everyone is in a different location. And for total peace of mind, we know we’ll never lose our data or have it stolen due to any internal IT failures, as it is stored in the highly secure Google cloud.

This all allows the team at Tomcar Australia to concentrate on making the worlds best all-terrain vehicle.

Guest post by David and Michael Brim, co-founders of Tomcar Australia.